A Million-Year Misalignment and the Last Glacial Hitchhiking: How the EDAR V370A Timestamp Dismantles the "Genetic Driver" Narrative for East Asian Morphology

The “Out of Africa with admixture” model for East Asia rests on a central presupposition: that modern East Asian morphology is the cumulative result of late incoming genes. This study introduces a “timestamp comparison” method to test the logical coherence of that presupposition. The fossil record shows that the typical East Asian shovel-shaped incisor was already firmly established in Lantian Man (~1.63 Ma), Yunxian Man (~1.0 Ma), and Peking Man (~0.7 Ma). In contrast, molecular estimates and direct ancient genomic evidence indicate that the most strongly associated candidate mutation, EDAR V370A, rose to high frequency in East Asians only during the Last Glacial Maximum (~19-30 ka). This million-year “morphology-genotype timestamp paradox” fundamentally challenges any claim that late-arriving genes drove the emergence of indigenous East Asian morphology. Coupled with a homoplasy model in which facial skeletons can adapt mechanically without waiting for new mutations, we propose that the anatomical architecture of East Asian hominins is the product of long-term in situ evolution and habitat adaptation. Late gene flow from Africa represents superficial overlay, not a basal driver.